Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (محمود احمدی‌نژاد; born 1956), also written Ahmadinezhad, is the current President-elect of Iran and will become the president on August 2, 2005. He has also been the mayor of Tehran since 2003 and is widely considered to be a religious conservative with Islamist and populist views.

Ahmadinejad was elected President of Iran on June 24, 2005 in the second round of the 2005 presidential election. His rival, who had won more votes in the first round, was the influential former-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whom Ahmadinejad defeated with 61.69% of the vote out of the about twenty-eight million votes, a turnout of about 59.6%. This happened while Ahmadinejad had only secured 19.48% of the votes in the first round. Analysts say that Ahmadinejad's simple lifestyle and his populist views, had won support especially amongst the poorer classes of people.

Platform

In his presidential campaign, Ahmadinejad had taken a populist approach, with emphasis on his own simple life, and had compared himself with Mohammad Ali Rajai, the second President of Iran — a claim that raised objections from Rajai's family. Ahmadinejad plans to create an "exemplary government for the world people" in Iran. He is a self-described principlist; that is, acting politically based on Islamic and revolutionary principles. One of his goals were "putting the petroleum income on people's tables", referring to Iran's oil profits being distributed amongst the poorer classes.

Ahmadinejad was the only presidential candidate who talked against future relations with the United States. Also, in an interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting a few days before the elections, Ahmadinejad accused the United Nations of being "one-sided, stacked against the world of Islam." He has openly opposed the veto power given to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. In the same interview, he mentioned that "It is not just for a few states to sit and veto global approvals. Should such a privilege continue to exist, the Muslim world with a population of nearly 1.5 billion should be extended the same privilege." In addition, he has defended Iran's nuclear program and has accused "a few arrogant powers" of attempting to limit Iran's industrial and technological development in this and other fields. In a question by a Shargh journalist about the release of political prisoners in case he becomes president, Ahmadnizhad answered with a question: "Which political prisoners? The political prisoners in the United States?"

The main slogan for his campaign was "It's possible and we can do it" (می‌شود و می‌توانیم). Politically, he is a member of the Islamic Society of Engineers, but he also has a powerful base inside Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (also known as Abadgaran), an alliance which was divided in supporting him and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in the first round of the presidential election.

During his campaign for the second round, he has said "we didn't participate in the revolution for turn-by-turn government [...] This revolution tries to reach a world-wide government". [1] Also he has mentioned that he has an extended program on fighting terrorism in order to improve foreign relations and has called for greater ties with Iran's neighbours and ending visa requirements between states in the region, saying that "People should visit anywhere they wish freely. People should have freedom in their pilgrimages and tours."

Biography

Born in the Arādān village near Garmsar, the son of a blacksmith, his family moved to Tehran when he was one year old. He entered Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) as an undergraduate student of civil engineering in 1976. He continued his studies in the same university, entering the MSc program for civil engineering in 1986 and finally receiving his PhD in Traffic and transportation engineering and planning.

In 1980, Ahmadinejad was the head representative of IUST to the student gatherings that took sessions with the presence of the Ayatollah Khomeini. In these sessions, the foundations of the first Office for Strengthening Unity (daftar-e tahkim-e vahdat), the student organization behind seizure of the United States embassy which led to the Iran hostage crisis, were created. During the seizure of the embassy, Ahmadinejad suggested a simultaneous attempt against the Soviet Union embassy, which was voted down.

During the Iran-Iraq war, Ahmadinejad joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in 1986. After training at the headquarters, he saw action in extraterritorial covert operations against Kirkuk, Iraq. Later he also became the head engineer of the sixth army of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the head of the Corps' staff in the western provinces of Iran. After the war, he has served as vice governor and governor of Maku and Khoy, an Advisor to the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and the governor of the then newly established Ardabil province from 1993 to October 1997.

But Ahmadinejad was mostly an unknown figure in Iranian politics, until he was elected Mayor of Tehran by the second City Council of Tehran on May 3, 2003, after the city council elections of 2003 when a 12% turnout led to the election of the conservative candidates of Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran in Tehran. During his mayorship, he has reversed many of the changes put into effect by previous moderate and reformist mayors, putting serious religious emphasis on the activites of the cultural centers founded by previous mayors, going on the record with the separation of elevators of men and women in the municipality offices [2] and suggesting the burial of the body of the martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war in major city squares of Tehran.

As the Mayor of Tehran, Ahmadinejad also became the manager in charge of the daily newspaper Hamshahri, which led to dismissing Mohammad Atrianfar as the editor and replacing him with Alireza Sheikh-Attar, who was subsequently fired on June 13, 2005, a few days before the presidential elections, because of not supporting Ahmadinejad for the post. Sheikh-Atter was replaced with Ali Asghar Ash'ari, a previous Vice Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance during the ministership of Mostafa Mirsalim. During his managing, he has also fired Nafiseh Kouhnavard, one of Hamshahri's journalists, for asking a question from President Khatami, about the "red lines" of the regime and illegal parallel intelligence agencies, that Ahmadinejad didn't consider appropriate, and later accused Ms Kouhnavard of spying for Turkey and Republic of Azerbaijan. [3]

Ahmadinejad is known to have quarreled with the reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who then barred him from attending meetings of the Board of Ministers, a privilege usually extended to mayors of Tehran. He has publicly criticized Khatami of not knowing about the daily problems of the general public. He usually avoids interviews with independent journalists, or avoids answering their questions by asking other questions [4] and asking them not to ask "complicated questions". [5]

After two years as Tehran mayor, Ahmadinejad was shortlisted in a list of sixty-five finalists for World Mayor 2005 [6] out of the 550 nominated mayors. Only nine mayors were from Asia.

Allegations

During the Iranian presidential election of 2005, some people, including Mehdi Karroubi, the pragmatic reformist candidate who ranked third in the election, have alleged that a network of mosques, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Basij militia forces, have been illegally used to generate and mobilize support for Ahmadinejad. Karroubi has explicitly alleged Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, among the conspirators. Ahmadinejad's supporters consider these to be false allegations. Furthermore, Ayatollah Khamenei has written to Karroubi and mentioned that his allegations are "below his dignity" and "will result in a crisis" in Iran, which he will not allow. As a reply, Karroubi resigned from all his political posts, including an Advisor to the supreme leader and a member of Expediency Discernment Council, on both of which he has been installed by Khamenei. [7] Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ahmanizhad's rival in the secound round, has also pointed to organized and unjust interventions by "guiding" the votes, and has supported Karroubi's complaint. [8]. Rafsanjani had also alleged a "dirty tricks" campaign had "illegally" propelled Ahmadinejad into the presidency, an allegation which he strongly denies. Rafsanjani later accepted the results and told everyone to "assist" the new president-elect.

Also, some political groups, including the reformist party Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), have alleged that Ahmadinejad had won so many votes because of illegal support and advertising activities for him during the voting by the supervisors selected by the Guardian Council, while the supervisors should have remained impartisan according to the election law. [9] Also, the reformist newspaper Shargh has pointed to an announcement by Movahhedi Kermani, the official representative of the supreme leader in Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, mentioning "vote for a person who keeps to the minimum in his advertisements and doesn't lavish", which uniquely pointed to Ahmadinejad. time Previously, Austrian parliament representative, Peter Pilz, alleged Ahmadinejad to have possibly had a hand in international assassinations ordered by the Iranian government against political opposition groups. [10] However, this allegation has not been proven.

Some have also alleged that Ahmadinejad had been a "Last Shot-in-the-head" executioner of political prisoners, shooting the executed prisoners after they were shot by a firing squad to ensure that they are dead, in the Evin prison in Tehran, and claim that he has delivered around a thousand such shots. But Ahmadinejad denies these allegations.

Criticism of his views

Many reformist and independent political parties, including some of those who have boycotted the first round of the presidential election, have called for an alliance against Ahmadinejad, calling it "a national alliance against fascism". For example, IIPF has asked for people voting in the second round to "prevent the danger of a rise of religious fascism" and Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization talking about "the danger of the rule of fascism". [11] Critics, including some independent ones, have mentioned that while there are some similiarities between the actions and rising of supporters of Ahmadinejad with those of Fascism, there are important differences. Firstly, the movement is not nationalistic or racist. Secondly, it lacks corporatism. Another point of criticism is that it uses general or inaccurate words to describe an opponent. Many critics of his viewpoint and subsequently of his supporters, call his platform "fictional socialism".

External links

"Iran elects new hardline leader" (BBC)
"Victor wants 'modern Islamic' Iran" (CNN)
"Ahmadinejad elected president of Iran" (Al-Jazeera)
Profile: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, BBC's profile on Ahmadinejad
Iran elections candidates: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Ahamdinejad's biography (in Persian)
Ahmadinejad's campaign website (in Persian)
Karroubi's letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, alleging Ahmadinejad supporters of organized illegal activities (in Persian)
The Mayor Who Does Not Like Criticism (in Persian), an article by Rooz on Ahmadinejad